Advanced Facility For Stewart-warner

Diversey Plant`s Future Uncertain

Stewart-Warner Corp. officials said Tuesday they plan to open a Chicago research and engineering center next year to develop technologically advanced instrument panels for heavy vehicles.

The new center, to be an arm of the Stewart-Warner Instruments division, is designed to put the company ahead of worldwide competitors in

instrumentation technology, said company President Wesley J. Kiley.

But the new center may also cause the company to make a quicker decision on the closing of a huge, outdated instruments manufacturing plant at 1826 W. Diversey Ave.

``Diversey would require a large investment to take highly technological new products,`` Kiley said in an interview. ``We`ll have to decide what to do in the near future. We`ll do what`s necessary to be competitive.``

The plant on Diversey Avenue has six floors dedicated to instruments manufacturing and occupies 1 million square feet of space. Because of its size, it may not fit into Chicago-based Stewart-Warner`s plans for small, specialized manufacturing and assembly facilities in Chicago and other locations.

Officials are also considering greater use of subcontractors, Kiley said. Representatives from the Local 1154 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America and managers at the firm are expected to discuss the new center and the future of the Diversey Avenue plant before the weekend. Officials of the instruments division will meet with union leaders to seek input on where the company will build new manufacturing facilities and how to operate them, Kiley said.

The Northwest Side plant employs 1,225, including 900 union workers, Kiley said. It employed more than 2,000 when the British BTR PLC acquired Stewart-Warner Corp. in 1987.

The new engineering center would cost ``several million dollars,`` Kiley said, adding that it would employ about 50 engineers and designers. That staff will design electronic state-of-the-art instrumentation panels for trucks, farm, construction and automotive vehicles, and it will produce prototypes of the new systems, Kiley said.

Panels developed at the center will be more sensitive to high-performance engines and more readable, Kiley said. The center will also simulate conditions experienced by vehicle operators to determine the best lighting conditions and graphic styles for instrument panels.

The company decided to establish the engineering center in Chicago because the area already has the necessary technical personnel as well as many of the customers who need the new products, Kiley said.

Those customers include Navistar International Corp. of Chicago, Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, and J.I. Case Co. of Racine, Wis.

The instruments division of Stewart-Warner Corp. contributes about 15 percent of the firm`s $300 million in worldwide sales, Kiley said.

Stewart Warner Ltd., another subsidiary in England, will use the new center to develop products in Europe.

The company sorely needs this type of center, said Greg LeRoy, research director for the Midwest Center for Labor Research. A study that his group conducted three years ago concluded that the amount Stewart-Warner spent on research then was about half of that spent by competitors.

``They were well behind the state of the art,`` LeRoy said. ``That was one reason Stewart-Warner was losing share.``

But LeRoy expressed concern over the future of the jobs at the Diversey Avenue plant. His group is serving as a research support group for the Coalition to Save Stewart-Warner, a council of union members and community groups.

``This company is making a positive step to stay in the industry, but any reinvesting should benefit jobs here.``